Rediff.com

Bangalore, Jan 20: Beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said Friday he has an "option to exit" before the vote of confidence on January 27.

Singh said, "I can't take individual decisions. I have to wait for the high command's permission". But, he added, the high command had not given any direction to him so far.

He said he had also not consulted the party high command. "I will leave the decision to them."

Singh said he would be attending the party plenary, beginning in Hyderabad Saturday, only on January 23.

He said he had a brief discussion with Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda, whose son H D Kumaraswamy has revolted against him along with a majority of his party MLAs to push the Congress-JD-S coalition to the brink of collapse.

Singh firmly ruled out holding negotiations with the JD-S faction led by Kumaraswamy and questioned their action in aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party as the JD-S had earlier joined hands "with us to keep the communal forces like BJP out of power".

He, however, also expressed optimism over winning the vote of confidence, saying, "a miracle can happen".